Detective: Girlfriend seemed to encourage teen to kill family

A court hearing continued Tuesday to determine if an Albuquerque teenager who pleaded guilty to killing his family will be sentenced as an adult.

Prosecutors called two Bernalillo County deputies who interviewed Nehemiah Griego 24 hours after the murders to testify on Tuesday.

One detective says initially Griego claimed someone else killed his parents and three young siblings, but he later broke down and confessed. Both detectives talked about text messages exchanged on an app between Griego and his girlfriend, where they talked about killing both sets of their parents.

One of the deputies said he found firearms, large amounts of ammunition and bullet casings from the home.

The first detective who arrived to the scene described Griego as being expressionless while he interacted with deputies and told them that when he got home he had gone upstairs to find his family “deceased.”

Another detective said Griego told him that when he got home from a sleepover, he found his family dead.

Under cross-examination from the defense, one detective said it seemed Griego’s girlfriend was egging him on to kill.

The grandmother of Griego’s girlfriend said she first met Griego the day after the murders happened. She told the court that Griego’s girlfriend had asked if he could spend the night that night, at which time Griego told her his parents had been killed in an accident a month before.

The grandmother was concerned, she told the court, and told a church minister about what he had said. Church members went to the home and called BCSO, according to the grandmother’s testimony.